Introduction

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Energy consumption in the Bay Area

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As part of the CEE218X Fall Quarter 2020 roster, one of my assignments consisted in analyzing the evolution of energy consumption in the Bay Area from 2017 and 2020. The main objective was to focus on the potential impact of COVID-19. I offer here the following results:

  1. Bar chart analyses showing the Global evolution between 2017 and 2020 of energy consumption, then a focus on the COVID-19 pandemic impact on the different types of consumption.
  2. Maps analyses focusing on the Impact of COVID-19 on residential electricity consumption and the Impact of COVID-19 on commercial electricity consumption. To get a better understanding of the stakes, I offer two types of map for each impact; one showing the absolute values, and the other showing percentages.

A short conclusion of my study is available in the Conclusion section.

Global evolution between 2017 and 2020

Column

Global evolution between 2017 and 2020

The impact of COVID-19

Row

On residential electricity consumption

On residential gas consumption

On commercial electricity consumption

On commercial gas consumption

On global energy consumption

The impact of COVID-19 on Residential Consumption

Row

Residential Electricity consumption evolution - Absolute values map

Residential Electricity consumption evolution - Percentages map

The impact of COVID-19 on Commercial Consumption

Row

Absolute values map

Percentages map

Conclusion

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Conclusion

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While the variations of Residential Electricity consumption are quite spread out in the Bay Area, the variations of Commercial Electricity consumption are much more concentrated. This highlights the uneven repartition of the economic activity in the Bay, as a major part of the Bay showed no variations of electricity consumption linked to commercial activities. Two outcomes can be possible; either there is very few commercial activities in these regions, or the activity remained the same between 2019 and 2020. Because of COVID-19 and state regulations, the first outcome seems more plausible.

I find it interesting to highlight how the impact of COVID-19 on the global repartition of energy consumption in a region such as a Bay Area helped us understand and analyze deeper issues, such as the repartition of the economic activity or the regional land use. The pandemic could therefore be used as a source of data to analyze repartition patterns and help build policies that can improve the wealth repartition standard of living in the Bay, while optimizing the physical and cash flows.